If the amount of data required exceeds the initial congestion window (typically 14.6kB compressed), it will require additional round trips between your server and the user’s browser. For users on networks with high latencies such as mobile networks this can cause significant delays to page loading.

With this in mind, I spent some time trying to get the minified and combined html/css files used to show the initial content to have a gzipped length of less than 14.6kb. There are several large files that still need to be downloaded and processed after that, but my goal is to communicate to the user as quickly as possible that something is happening, show the basic page, and not leave them staring at a blank screen.

I believe I have done got things down below the 14.6kb threshold: the initial html/css is downloaded in a single file that is 12.3kb compressed. Theoretically, this should mean that (usually) all of the materials needed for initial display can be obtained with the first trip to the server after SSL negotiation. I haven't checked the raw packets yet to see if this is actually the case.

The purpose of this page is to summarize in one place some of the interactive visualizations I have worked on. Most of these were built...

"When you start on your journey to Ithaca, then pray that the road is long, full of adventure, full of knowledge... Always keep Ithaca fixed in your mind. To arrive there is your ultimate goal. But do not hurry the voyage at all." (from "Ithaca", by C. P. Cavafy)